Portal:Current events/2006 December 15

December 15, 2006 (Friday)

Muqtada al-Sadr withdraws his support for Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki. (RFE/RL)
The Government of Saudi Arabia announces plans to build a separation barrier between Saudi Arabia and Iraq. The barrier will cost $12 billion to build. (RFE/RL)
The king of Bhutan, Jigme Singye Wangchuck, abdicates in favor of his son, two years before he had initially planned to do so. (BBC)
A severe windstorm hits the Pacific Northwest overnight, with wind gusts reported as high as 97 miles per hour. Three people were killed in Washington, and at the peak of the storm about one million homes in western Washington and over 400,000 in the Greater Portland area were without electricity. In British Columbia, Stanley Park sustains more than $9 million damage. (Bellingham Herald)^{[permanent dead link‍]} (Oregonlive)
United States district court judge Jeremy Fogel imposes a moratorium on lethal injections in California stating that they are unconstitutional. In an unrelated incident, the Governor of Florida Jeb Bush has suspended lethal injections in Florida pending an investigation into the system after the recent execution of Ángel Nieves Díaz took 34 minutes after it was botched. (CNN #1), (CNN #2)
The 2006 Asian Games is officially closed at the 50,000 seater Khalifa International Stadium in Doha, Qatar marking the end of 15 days of competition.(Doha 2006 Asian Games website)
Retired Formula One driver Clay Regazzoni dies in a car accident when the Chrysler Voyager he was driving hit a lorry head on, outside Parma, Italy. (BBC)
Assistant Secretary of State Jendayi Frazer announces that the United States has no plans to commit troops to intervene in the Somali Civil War to root out al Qaeda cells operating in the country. (U.S. State Department)
Newt Gingrich, former Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives, says the six men involved in the Flying Imams controversy should have been "arrested and prosecuted for pretending to be terrorists." (UPI)
Alex Ovechkin of the Washington Capitals scores the fastest overtime goal in the history of the NHL in 6 seconds against the Atlanta Thrashers.
The Financial Report of the United States Government for 2006 was released late Friday evening. The combined federal deficits now total more than 400% of GDP. [1]